Details disclosed in this section merely offers background information regarding embodiments of the present invention. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the below might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present invention.
Normally, a wireless network has a star-type structure based on point-to-point or point-to-multipoint topology. Recently, there is a growing interest in a wireless network having a mesh structure based on multipoint-to-multipoint topology like a wired network.
The wireless mesh network has some advantages such as an easy extension of network without the connection with the wired network, a rapid and cost-effective installation of network, the provision of redundancy by multiple paths, the flexibility and extendibility of network, and the like.
A typical wired network environment uses technique to relay a signal through a repeater or wireless router, also referred to as an access point (AP), thus having a wired connection architecture of all APs.
Contrary to this, the mesh network merely requires a wired connection of a representative AP. Then, wireless communication routers, which act as antennas like typical wireless communication base stations, become mesh nodes and hence realize wireless connections in all sections.
This allows a network structure based on wired mesh topology to be applied to a wireless network, thus overcoming limitations of typical wireless LAN. Namely, this may be considered as an extended form of a hotspot zone already constructed by communication companies.
While the hotspot zone allows anyone to access Wi-FI and use a wireless network in a building, the mesh network constructs a wireless network on a large scale such as a resort, a park, a harbor, or any other broader area.
In the mesh network, users can use the network in a similar procedure to access to Wi-Fi. This gives the benefit of realizing a network connection in a disaster situation or in hinterlands incapable of constructing a wired network, and also has the advantage of home networking. Thus, this has recently attracted considerable attention as essential technology in the ubiquitous age.
Meanwhile, with the remarkable development of a mobile communication network and related technologies, today's mobile communication devices have outgrown a typical category of simple communication devices or information providing devices and are now evolving into total entertainment devices.
Such a mobile communication device often has a function of short range communication such as NFC (Near Field Communication) or Bluetooth as well as a traditional communication function using a mobile communication network.
By the way, NFC covers a relatively narrower communication range and needs an additional wireless chip, whereas Bluetooth covers a relatively wider communication range and is inherently applied to most of recent mobile communication devices. In addition, a great variety of communication services using Bluetooth are developed and launched.
Further, a new service for offering various kinds of information to a user's mobile device by utilizing a beacon device based on Bluetooth is being developed and studied. In particular, such a beacon device based on Bluetooth is now applied to the construction of the mesh network.
In order to construct the mesh network in a broader area, a solution for connecting two or more pre-constructed mesh networks is required such as installing a bridge node between mesh networks. According to conventional technique, an administrator or engineer of the mesh network manually checks a connection state of mesh networks and finds a suitable position for installing a new beacon device (e.g., a bridge node). This is not at all effective.
Accordingly, technique to construct a beacon network more effectively and operate the beacon network dynamically depending on network conditions is needed.